Jatin Alla — HCI researcher, builder, writer

When I moved from India to America at seven, I was chronically ill and did not speak English. The thing that kept me upright was not a translator or a doctor — it was a kid at school who sat with me at lunch, every day, for a year, without needing me to be entertaining.

I have spent the rest of my life trying to understand what he did. Everything on this site is some version of that question.

Technology promised to connect us. Instead, it engineered our isolation.

I'm building the reverse — papers, open-source tools, and fine-tuned models that help people develop the skills to find each other again.

  1. Researcher Mind Four years at UCSC and Google Research on how AI shapes connection — for good and for harm.
  2. Builder Hand Open-source projects, fine-tuned models, and the systems that came out of the papers.
  3. Writer Voice Essays on AI, emotion, and human connection — long-form on Substack, slowly.
  4. Photographer Eye The practice I trust most for presence. A small archive; the fuller one lives offsite.
  5. Listener Ear Feeling First Principles — a new podcast in production, with the Why Life? archive alongside it.
  6. Present Heart What I am actually working on, reading, and sitting with this month.